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Israel reopens Gaza border to humanitarian aid, fuel

( dpa ) - Israel reopened two of its border crossings with the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning to humanitarian aid and diesel fuel, following a nearly four-day lock-down of the coastal salient, a military spokesman confirmed.

Trucks with basic necessities were allowed through the southern Kerem Shalom crossing point, while some diesel fuel was allowed through the nearby Nahal Oz crossing.

Several trucks with medical supplies were in the process of passing through Kerem Shalom, Shadi Yassin of the army's Coordination and Liason office with the Gaza Strip told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The diesel is meant for Gaza's only local power station, which runs on the fuel and shut down Sunday evening as a result of the total closure, plunging 800,000 Palestinians in Gaza City and its suburbs who are supplied by it into darkness.

Gaza City's main Shiffa hospital was also left to run on an emergency generator because of the power cut.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak authorized the reopening of the crossings for humanitarian aid and diesel late Monday, but warned Israel would continue to apply "pressure" on the Gaza Strip to end daily rocket attacks from there at southern Israel.

The Israeli military said there had been a significant decline in the number of rockets in recent days, compared to a serious escalation last week, when more than 130 rockets and mortar shells landed in the Israeli town of Sderot, the coastal city of Ashqelon and elsewhere near the Strip in little more than three days.